Optics Balzers and MPIA to deliver Euclid NISP Infrared flight filters for ESA survey mission

Artist’s impression of Euclid
Photo by ESA/C. Carreau

Optics Balzers Jena and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) recently signed the contract for the delivery of the Euclid NISP Infrared flight filters.

Euclid is an ESA survey mission to investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The mission will be launched in 2020 and will orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point located 1.5 million km from Earth. The mission is scheduled for six years. Its primary scientific goals are targeted towards understanding the universe on its largest scales: how has the universe evolved since the Big Bang, and what are the fundamental physical laws dictating this evolution? The Euclid Satellite will image billions of galaxies as well as measure tens of millions of spectra.

The Euclid Scientific Consortium (EC) is composed of over 1200 scientists and engineers from 14 European countries.

OBJ will provide the coatings for NISP Instrument’s three near-infrared (Y-, J- and H-band) filters. These high-precision optical elements are particularly challenging as, with a diameter of 130 mm, they are significantly larger than any filters that have been flown in space before.

As part of the Euclid mission, OBJ is also responsible for the coating of the dichroic filter plate contracted by Airbus Defence and Space.

For more information, please visit http://www.opticsbalzers.com.

• CID: 21958